AAAS Salary Survey

The AAAS has done a salary survey of life scientists, which has gotten a
lot of press lately. If you are a subscriber to SCIENCE, you can read
about it there. The following sites have information, summaries, and
commentary (free passwords or registration may be required; these links
are also provided on the Women in biology Internet Launch page):
http://recruit.sciencemag.org/feature/salsurvey/v294i5541p396.htmhttp://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=011012&story=2http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/683http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/16/science/life/16SALA.html?pagewanted=print
The take-home message is that women still lag behind men in salaries,
even when controlled for age, type of institution, and so forth. Women
are also not as happy as men about promotion opportunities and
professional recognition.
Once again, people raise the possibility that this reflects family
responsibilities, but this survey did not ask about children. Previous
surveys have shown that even childless women lag behind their male
counterparts in promotion and salary. That has certainly been my
observation.
The women's e-news article writes, 'The
explanations that women haven't been in senior positions long enough to
earn salaries on par with men's "is beginning to be a very stale
argument,"
says Catherine Didion, executive director of the Association of Women in
Science.'
The NY Times article cites the recent elevations to positions of power
of Susan Lindquist and Shirley Tilghman as positive signs that things
are improving. Well, yes, this is good news, but we need to make sure
that it trickles down to the women at levels below. My fear is that
people will point at a few extraordinary women and think all is cured,
when really, things have not changed for the vast majority of women in
the field.
--
-susan
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S L Forsburg, PhD Associate Professor
Molecular Biology and Virology Lab
The Salk Institute, La Jolla CA
forsburgATsalk.edu
http://pingu.salk.edu/~forsburg/lab.html
Women in Biology Internet Launch Page
http://pingu.salk.edu/~forsburg/bio.html
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